Route 66 Day 15 November 5, 2019
We'd had a lovely rest in Williams, but it was time to get back on the road again with a tour of the Grand Canyon Caves to look forward to, but first we were heading for Angel Delgadillo's Route 66 Gift and Barber Shop in Seligman.
About twenty miles down the I-40 I suddenly remembered that I had forgotten to take my medication out of the fridge before we left the last hotel! So, I had to radio Dale (the tour leader) to let him know we would have to turn back. With that all confirmed, we turned off the freeway at the next exit. Dan, who usually sat at the back of our convoy hadn't heard the conversation I'd had with Dale, and he came after us and redirected us to get back on the freeway. Initially we thought he was leading us back to the hotel, but after a couple more miles we realised he didn't understand why we had left the I-40, so we drove up beside him and indicated to him to pull off.
Pulling off on a freeway can be very dangerous, but fortunately nothing untoward happened as I quickly raced up to Dan's window and told him why we had pulled off. He reminded me about the instructions on how to get to the place that would our first stop. It was all pretty straight forward, so for the second time we turned off the I-40 and and returned to our last hotel.
Medication in hand, as well as our bag of snacks which we had also left behind (duh!), we hit the road again, and made our way to Seligman. We drove down the I-40 for a few miles and then took an exit back on to Route 66 where the quality of the road became markedly different.
It didn't take us long to catch up with the group again. Most were sitting around having a cup of coffee and enjoying the warm morning air. The further west we headed the warmer it was getting, this was partly due to the fact that we were also droppin in altitude. We even had some time to peruse the gift shop.
Seligman in Arizona is where Route 66 was reborn, or to look at it from another perspective, saved from oblivion. Angel Delgadillo and his late brother Juan established this shop. (It was recently sold and is currently being refurbished.) The town has its fair share of Route 66 classic buildings such as the motels, stores and gas stations. Angel was another of the great personalities of Route 66. He was born in 1927 in a house on the main thoroughfare of Seligman, which eventually became Route 66. It was a dirt road then, and when Route 66 was created it was paved. Angel and his eight siblings grew up watching traffic flow by on the Main Street of America. He saw folks from the "dust bowl era" driving along with everything they owned, heading west to seek a better life in California. To keep Seligman alive, Angel and his brother started a fun run which people from all over the country come to join in. Jenny and I got a little taste of the place, and before we knew it, it was time to restart the engines and get to our designated tour of the Grand Canyon Caverns.
The people leading the tours here called this area "the middle of nowhere"! (That's what I call the area around Newman!)
We were met by a young guy called David, who like the lady on the boat in Chicago, had a long script about the Caverns learnt by heart. He was a personable young guy who, unlike the Chicago lady, was less robotic and seemed have a genuine care for the people he was leading.
The first job was to get everyone down to the huge cavern we were about to explore. It was about 120 feet below the surface. We were asked to wait on benches until the whole group was together. This map was in the waiting area:
Once we were all assembled the walking tour began. The first sight we walked past was a restaurant come entertaining area and this sign:
I can say honestly, that this idea would not appeal to me at all! But I also believe in "different strokes for different folks"! People have used the area for weddings and other types of entertainment. It has been well set up.
As we walked past the theatre style set up of chairs and stage, David told us the story of how the Grand Canyon Caves had been discovered and eventually an enterprising concern. It is quite entertaining:
In 1927, a heavy rain widened the natural funnel shaped opening to the upper level of an unknown system of caverns in western Arizona, A wood cutter for the Santa Fe Railroad by the name of Walter Peck found the entrance one evening on his way to a poker game at the nearby Yampai railroad siding house. The caverns were probably his only true winnings.
The following morning Walter and some of his friends brought ropes and lanterns with them to the new hole in the trail. They tied a rope around the waist of a local cowboy and lowered him into the hole. By the time the cowboy's feet touched the floor of the hole, one hundred and fifty feet of rope had been let out and he found himself in a very large and dark cavern. Using a coal oil lantern, he began exploring. The only thing that excited him was that he thought he had found a very rich vein of gold when the light picked up some sparkle in the rocks. Gathering up a sack for of samples, he tugged on the rope and was hauled to the surface. Upon making the surface, he quickly showed the samples and then told of finding the remains of two humans and part of a saddle at the 50 foot level. By the time the newspaper had finished with the story, the remains were those of prehistoric cavemen and there was no mention of the saddle. Soon, scientists had come from the east to pick up and study the bones. While this was happening, Walter purchased the property and the Caverns, in preparation for mining the gold. When Walter saw the assay reports on his gold mine, much to his dismay, no gold was found, only lots of iron oxide (commonly known as rust)! He had wagered his money on an empty funnel-shaped hole. But, being an entrepreneur, he soon came up with a solution. He would charge 25 cents to enter the Caverns where "the cavemen" had been found. He quickly developed a very primitive elevator. Visitors were tied to a rope and lowered into the hole. Each visitor had to provide their own light source. Upon reaching the floor of the hole the visitor could explore the caverns on their own. It would have been unwise to untie the rope and stray far, for if their light failed, the inexperienced explorer might not find the rope again!
It took two years of blasting a shaft 210 feet deep and an additional 18 months to install a modern-day elevator. The original natural entrance was then sealed off forever. As it turns out, the remains of the two humans were members of the Hualapai Indian tribe who had died in the winter of 1917. As the story goes, a group of Hualapai Indians were out cutting firewood when two members fell sick from the flu and died. Due to the frozen ground conditions and a need for an immediate burial, the two fallen brothers were dropped in a well-concealed hole that no one would ever disturb. Ten years later, Walter Peck stumbled upon that same hole in the ground. The permanent sealing of the caverns was done out of respect for the religious beliefs of the Hualapai Indians. The natural entrance is a sacred burial ground.
In late 1935, during the Great Depression, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) set up work camps to employ some of the many people out of work and willing to go to the area. The CCC made a deal with Walter that if he would supply all the materials, they would build a new entrance to the Caverns. When finished, the improved access included several components:
*The first 30 feet of the Caverns was a wooden staircase. Then came three ladders (15 feet each). The last 60 foot stretch was a beautiful (swinging) suspension bridge.
* The new entrance entailed 15 stories of walking in and 15 stories of walking out.
After this phase of construction was completed, the price to get into the Caverns was increased to 50 cents a person.Now more than one person could enter the Caverns at a time! This was the only way in and out of the cavern until 1962 when the new elevator shaft was installed.
Exploration of the Grand Canyon Caverns is ongoing. Curious wafts of air have been felt seeping through niches and floor fissures. For the people whose lives are centred her, these drafts provide proof that other caverns await discovery deep below. They know that existing below the present day Grand Canyon Caverns, 1500 feet below ground level, there are two large large rooms. These were discovered by seismic testing, but at present it is too costly to reach the rooms unless a natural way can be found. Since 1949, spelunkers (people who explore caves) have been exploring regions in the caverns too dangerous for the public to visit, in the hope of finding more rooms and passageways.
Over the years a number of unfortunate creatures have wandered into the caverns, only to have their fate sealed in a slow death with no way out. The remains of a giant Ground Sloth was found and a model has been created. Dubbed "Gertie", she is 15 feet tall and it is estimated that she probably weighed 2000 pounds. This species of sloth became extinct between 11,000 and 20,000 years ago. Its living relatives are the modern-day tree sloth or three toed sloth, the armadillos and the anteater.
A mummified bobcat was also found around 1950. It is believed to have fallen into the caverns. The temperature is a constant 56 degrees F, year round with a humidity of 6%. That's very dry! So if something falls in and can't find its way out, it is doomed to stay here for the rest of its days.
This is a dry or dead cavern. Only 3% of all caverns in the world are dry, which adds to this cavern's uniqueness. Water has not been in here for a long time, although there is physical evidence that water was present and helped form all the cavern's features. Fossils of prehistoric clams, scallops and evidence of sea turtle remains have been found lithified in the limestone walls as well.
In early 1963, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the US government stored enough food and water in the caverns to support 2000 people for two weeks. Although these rations were never needed, because of the cool dry conditions of the caverns, the food is still edible 56 years later.
A lot of work had been done to make the cave an enjoyable walking tour, and quite frankly after all the sitting and driving we had been doing, it was good to get out and walk up and down the steep surfaces and steps which were all fitted with guard rails. There were times when I was higher up than the rest of the group.
It was a leisurely tour and we were brought full circle back to the elevator, to repeat the process of going in group, but this time going up to the surface.
There were a few curiosities to see when we reached the gift shop at the top:
Sign of the day: In a world where you can be anything .. Be Yourself.
The people who ran the Grand Canyon Caverns were very well organised when it came to providing us with lunch. Like a factory assembly line, they churned out platefuls of food for each person according to their choice on the menu. I succumbed to a cheese burger ... again. It was actually quite delicious! While we ate, we listened to one of the legends of Route 66, Jim Hinkley, who has written 9 books about the history of the road and the personalities who keep it going. While Jim was speaking and answering questions, I had a lightbulb moment! I understood for the first time that the actual route of the Route 66 road had been built over the pathways made by the cowboys, Indians and wagon trains depicted in the old Hollywood movies! What was already there was paved to form the route we were following, which had now been replaced by the I-40 and other freeways.
Once Jim had given his presentation and autographed copies of his books, we made our way back out to the carpark to begin the next leg of our journey. I took a shot of the side of jim's door:
As we hit the open road, the scenery began to change:
The hills were becoming steeper and rockier. Trains and trucks were also still very much of the scenario.
Occasionally we would see cattle grazing in the fields.
These photos don't do justice to the grandiosity and spectacularness (if there is such a word) of the magnificent countryside.
The mood amongst the drivers had changed dramatically from the early days of the trip. We were now on wide open road, and whilst it was vital that we keep our wits about us for deer and ice, there were less concerns about the carelessness of other drivers. Therefore we could let it rip up hill and down dale!
Our next stop was Hackberry General Store. Jenny and I had been told about this place by a lovely lady we had met in the Williams post office. She specifically said that we should go an look at the little school she used to go to when she was a child. So after checking in with Dale, we took off in our car to cross the railway line and go and have a look, while everyone else perused the old things and cacti at the General Store.
As we were heading back to our car we met this beautiful, and very friendly cat, who was completely unfazed by the comings and goings of all the tourists.
Crossing the railway tracks was not as easy as it sounds. We drove down a rough old track,
And guessed that we should turn to the left, because that was the direction the town was in on the other side. We were wrong! As the road became rockier, and appeared to be only a siding road for the railway, we found a place to turn around, get back to the original road we had come down, and then try going off to the right. This was much more successful! We went under a bridge, past a mine site and up to the little village. But do you think we could find the little school house? No! We saw an old church, and some little homes in the quiet little village ... but no schoolhouse. Well at least we tried, and we'd had yet another adventure to boot!
By the time we got back to the hackberry General Store it was time to hit the road again. We were heading to Oatman, Arizona.
We drove through Peach Springs and Cool Springs
Past a sign pointing to Los Angeles
Slowly we were ascending into the most spectacular scenery I had seen on the road so far. There was the obligatory stop at the roadside gift stall, where a former plumber (a real character!!) had become a rock collector and was selling carvings of feathers he made out of deer and elk horn. 
After a short stop, off we went again ... up a zig-zag road with a maximum speed of 15 miles per hour. The narrow road was carved into the side of the mountain ... and there was traffic coming the other way. It was quite nerve wracking at times.
I felt like we were on the roof top of the world!
At this point, we were able to stop, get out of the car and climb over the apex of the mountain to view what was on the other side.
I just loved the vastness, the majesty and the, untouched wilderness of what I could see.
The signs of human activity increased as we entered the little town of Oatman, Arizona.
And a surprise awaited us in the streets!
Friendly little wild burros wandering the streets!
I parked the car and tow little donkeys came up to me. I still had a few of the tortillas Jenny and I had bought a few days ago left in my bag of snacks, so I tore them up and gav e them to my waiting "friends". Even though they wanted more, I knew that time would be limited here, so I made my way up to the main thoroughfare.
I saw a shop on the corner that was selling burro food, so I popped in there and bought a bag for a dollar. Next thing I knew, I was surrounded!!
Apparently I wasn't feeding them fast enough. One burro decided to take things into his own control and tried to snatch the paper bag in which the food was contained, out of my hand. He gave me a chomp on the thumb too! Nothing serious, but it broke the skin! It was at that point I decided to go an have a look at the shops ... and here are some signs I noticed!
We actually saw some bad tempered behaviour on behalf of the donkey - some kicking and nudging in not such a friendly way ... and I was walking up the street, I had a plastic bag containing a children's book I had bought. On donkey grabbed it and tore open the bag!! I wasn't so enamoured by them anymore!
Oatman, Arizona is an old gold mining town dating back to the late 1800's. Oatman was named in honour of Olive Oatman, who as a young girl, was kidnapped by an Apache tribe, sold to Mojave Indians and later rescued in a trade in 1957 near the current site of the town. In its heyday, Oatman and its neighbour Goldroad were the largest gold producers in Arizona. Today it is host to 40 plus gift and antique shops, gun fight shows, and wild burros left over from the gold mining days.
It's a beautiful little town in such a stunning location. It's no wonder that it has had so many interesting visitors over the years. The Oatman Hotel is very famous. Built in 1902, it is the oldest two-story adobe structure in Mojave County. It has housed many miners, movie stars, politicians and other people of note. Clark Gable and Carol Lombard honeymooned there in March 1939. Their honeymoon suite is still one of the major attractions. Apparently Clark Gable returned there often to play poker with the local miners and enjoy the solitude of the mountains. The town was used as the location for several movies such as How The West Was Won, Foxfire and Edge of Eternity.
The feel of the town is definitely "old west" This was a total con - but I have to admit that I like you see in the movies. was curious! The sign said, For a good time, open the door. Only $1.00. Inside was a life-sized male doll sitting on a toilet! (I just happened to be there when a young couple put their money into the slot - good timing!)
Signs of the day!
It was time to hit the frog and toad (the road) again ....
Making our way to Needles, California!
The shape of the mountain tops give the town its name. We drove over the Colorado River ...
.... across the state border ..... .... into another time zone.
Jenny was driving solo while I hitched a ride with Norm in his little white mustang. The road was a bit rough and norm got a flat. Those fancy cars don't come with a spare, instead they have "run flat" tyres. So we kept going in the warmer climate ...
We had to stop at an Inspection station. They were only concerned about us carrying citrus fruit.
Past eucalyptus trees in the warm sunshine. 
And finally arriving at a tyre shop, where Norm and Dan organised a new tyre for his car that would be picked up in the morning.We were staying at the Rio Del Sol Inn. Across the road was a diner where we went to have dinner. Jenny made a new friend (he's only a life-sized doll!).
The feel of this place was so different to anything we had experienced on the trip so far. The air was warmer, and the people were more relaxed and friendly. Jenny decided to take herself off to have a couple of drinks with the others. I decided to stay in my room and do a bit of writing. Outside I could hear tradesmen talking at the end of their day. They had had a barbeque that they had cooked on the back of their truck, and they were now just sitting around talking about life, the universe, and everything. I heard one guy, who was 58, telling the others that he felt that time was running out for him, but that he knew where he was going at the end of his life. He was sharing his testimony, and then he asked his listeners, "Are you going to heaven?" ... after a pause "Do you know how to get there?" What a great way to leading in to sharing the Gospel. I was grateful I was an unseen listener.
Jenny eventually came back to the room, the guys eventually went to wherever they were sleeping the night, and I was ready to slumber too. It was warm, and I didn't need all the covers provided. It sure made for a nice change.
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